[fdiotalevi]

Don't agree at all, having lived 4 years in Germany. Certainly it's cheap, dirty cheap compared to London; certainly it has a good, creative vibe; certainly it's a awesome city. But that's all.

Facts I learnt in 4 years in Germany:

- it's very difficult to conduct business in Germany (with German customers) if you aren't fluent in German. And while people correctly says it's not difficult to pick up some German, proficiency requires at least 9 months of full time study

- taxes are prohibitive

- setting up a Gmbh it's expensive, and requires a lot of paperwork. The mini, entrepreneur-friendly UG (aka mini-Gmbh) it's a laughable joke, just political propaganda with so many limitations (number of founders, need to save 25% of profits to build the reserve fund, ...) that's hardly usable for a startup

- tax authorities are, as a matter of fact, going after (I'd like to say, persecuting) contractors, especially those coming from abroad or working for foreign companies. I have a dozen of stories of people asked to pay undue VAT, or asked to provide proofs that their employer are conducting business legitimately in Germany, asked to explain why some months they didn't earn any salary, ...

[evangineer]

When my business partner told me about the cost and effort in setting up a GMBH I was shocked. In London, we got our Ltd company registered with Companies House for well under 100GBP in about 3 hours. We were registered the same day we submitted our application.

I like Berlin, but I wouldn't incorporate over there and the winters in that part of the world are too cold for me!

[eru]

You can use British Limiteds in Germany as well. It's all part of EU goodness.

[fdiotalevi]

That's true, you can.

On the other side, tax authorities actively try to punish foreign companies operating in Germany with taxes like the Außensteuergesetz (AStG); applicability varies from country to country, from case to case, and in my experience if you ask two accountants whether your Ltd is subject to AStG, you'll get 2 opposite answers.

[eru]

Thanks for mentioning the Außensteuergesetz. I wonder how they square that with EU competition rules.